My name is Soo and I'm fat.

Well, not as fat as I used to be, and that is to be the crux of this post.

I was what was known in my infancy as a “healthy child”; slightly chubby but active. At age 5 I was seriously ill and was put on a low-fat, high-carb diet which accentuated this more. I ceased to be as active and suffered from depression from my pre-teens onwards, due to an early and untreated onset of puberty. Secondary school was all about academic subjects that were vital to my chosen career and during this time my weight became a serious concern.

The only point from then on that I successfully lost any weight was during my courtship. This was one of the happiest times of my life and the depression cleared for a short while. But this was to be short lived, as I gained excessive weight during my only pregnancy and suffered what was diagnosed as post-natal depression. It was, however, just a return to the normal state of affairs. My weight gently climbed and eventually it triggered the onset of type II diabetes.

Eventually, by the beginning of this year, all control of the diabetes had collapsed and, despite my being 7kg less than my heaviest weight, my consultant began to talk about surgical intervention. Now, oddly enough, I had considered asking for a stomach staple as a quick fix solution. But when it became a real probability, I didn't fancy going under the knife. So I buckled down to some serious dieting and exercise for the first time in my life.

And it's working. I've lost a further 17kg, my diabetes is well controlled with fewer drugs than previously. I'm 3 dress sizes smaller and my resting heart rate has dropped from 68 to 60. But recently I discovered the sting in the tail of weight loss.

It appears that all that excess weight was a shield; a way to make myself invisible and undesirable, to hide the real me from everyone else. And, as the weight has gone, I have thrown away that armour and the depression, which had been in remission for several years, has come back with a vengeance. So now I have had to face all the causes of my insecurity and depression. And it hurts.

To discuss these causes now would make this post far too long and some of them have been touched upon previously, but point is this. In all the years the medical profession has tried to get me to loose weight, they never considered connecting the depression and the excess weight. No-one had ever warned me that weight loss might (or should that be will) lead to psychological issues. Without an active support network of friends, the recent set back would have been considerably worse and would have lead to my giving up the diet and regaining the weight.

So, I ask all of you who read this to consider any friends you have that are loosing weight. Remember that they will also have to face the reason for their weight gain and that in most cases it will not simply be greed or ignorance. Make sure that you provide them with positive reassurance and offer them a shoulder to cry on when they get down. We can all do it, but only with the help of our friends.